Kevin Gausman's velocity dip dooms Blue Jays early vs. Yankees

NEW YORK — Given his hastened spring buildup and the biting breeze on a chilly evening in the Bronx, it’s not entirely surprising that Kevin Gausman’s velocity was down significantly during his second start of the season.

After all, this is sort of mid-March for him, a time when pitchers sometimes hit a lull in their camps that’s no biggie when it happens during a Grapefruit League game. Forced by a bout of shoulder fatigue to finish his ramp-up on the fly, Gausman didn’t have that luxury and paid for it Saturday night as the New York Yankees pounded the Toronto Blue Jays early and held on late for a 9-8 victory.

“I'm obviously still building up, but I think it was just the first start out of Florida, it's pretty cold and I just couldn't get going,” said Gausman. “Couldn't get my rhythm. A good team is going to take advantage of that. They kept the pressure on me, had to start throwing fastballs and obviously my pitch count had a lot to do with why I came out of the game.”

Averaging 91.4 m.p.h. on his fastball and 82.3 m.p.h. on his splitter, Gausman was a touch more than 3 m.p.h. off his averages during his dominant outing a week ago against the Tampa Bay Rays, when he struck out six over 4.1 innings of one-run ball. He was simply overpowering that day, getting 12 whiffs on 35 swings compared to just two on 17 cuts against the Yankees, who tagged him for six runs, five earned, on four hits and two walks in 1.1 innings.

The outing was his shortest in two-plus seasons since joining the Blue Jays and he didn’t strike out a batter during a start for the first time since June 11, 2017, when he gave up seven earned runs in 3.1 innings for Baltimore at Yankee Stadium.

A key reason for that is for his splitter to be effective, it needs to carry the zone in the mid-to-upper 80s, disguising it as a fastball just enough to keep hitters off balance. The Yankees were able to eliminate the pitch early, with Juan Soto falling behind 0-2 in the first inning before spitting on three splitters en route to a one-out walk. Soto was followed by Aaron Judge who, after also falling behind 0-2, launched a splitter to deep left field to open the scoring.

“Threw bad pitches to good hitters,” he said. “I've made that mistake of throwing that pitch to Judge many times before and it's never a good thing. So, wasn't surprised by the outcome.”

Now, Gausman can sometimes manoeuvre through an outing on his fastball alone, but not when it’s so far off his usual velo and he struggles to locate the pitch.

Giancarlo Stanton punched a heater at 91.3 m.p.h. over the short porch in right for a solo shot later in the first to make it 3-0 while in the second — after a catcher’s interference call against Brian Serven negated what should have been a leadoff strikeout by Anthony Volpe and a walk to Austin Wells — Gleyber Torres pounded a 92.6 m.p.h. fastball to deep left for a sacrifice fly. Then, following a passed ball, Soto ripped a 90.4 m.p.h. heater for an RBI single that made it 6-0 and ended Gausman’s night.

“I really don't look at my velo, to be honest,” said Gausman. “That's the running joke, I'm 88-98, they don't know what they're going to get, I don't know what they're going to get, either. I think it was the cold weather more than anything.”

The early hole was too much for the Blue Jays' offence to dig out from, even though it did pressure Clarke Schmidt throughout his 4.1 innings and eventually brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the ninth before Clay Holmes wiggled out of trouble.

Just as important is that Vladimir Guerrero Jr., ended an 0-for-11 slide with a solo shot and walk, and Bo Bichette stopped an 0-for-13 run with two hits and a walk.

Before the game, Guerrero said even through his dry spell, he was "feeling great" at the plate, felt his execution of gameplans at the plate "overall is good" and that the lack of hits "was part of the process."

"This is baseball — you're never going to get all the results that you want," he continued through interpreter Hector Lebron. "I continue to come to the field early, going about my routine, watching video, doing everything. If it doesn't happen today, it will happen tomorrow. You've just got to keep grinding."

His solo shot off Luke Weaver opened a three-run seventh to make it 9-3 while Bichette immediately followed with a double. After a Justin Turner walk, Daniel Vogelbach ripped a shoulder-high fastball a foot shy of a homer off the top of the wall in right-centre to plate another run, while Ernie Clement’s sacrifice fly pulled the Blue Jays within four.

But Davis Schneider, pinch-hitting for Daulton Varsho after lefty Victor Gonzalez came in, hit into a fielder’s choice and Alejandro Kirk, batting for Serven, also grounded out, freezing the rally. In the ninth, Schneider’s RBI double, Kirk’s RBI groundout and Cavan Biggio’s pinch-hit run-scoring single made it a one-run game before George Springer struck out to end it.

“I love it,” said manager John Schneider. “They didn't quit. I thought the approach against Schmidt was good and got his pitch count up. But, I mean, cold night, you could easily just say, OK, it's not our night. I love the way they battled back, they were in every single at-bat and made it really interesting. Get their closer up when you're probably not expecting to. I'm sure Clay didn't think he was pitching in the second inning tonight. But yeah, can't say enough about the way they kept chipping away and chipping away.”

A glass half-full/half-empty number is that they went 4-for-17 hitting with runners in scoring position, a sign that the Blue Jays are at least creating opportunities, if not capitalizing on them. In time, that should come if they maintain their approach.

"Every hitter is executing a plan," Guerrero said. "Right now, the results that we want aren't there. But everybody has a plan. We're executing that plan. We're trusting each other, whoever's hitting behind. We're looking for a good pitch to hit. And we'll get hot.

"Obviously we're not there yet, not where we want to be, but we're feeling good. Our mentality is great. The way we're performing right now, we're winning games. Can you imagine when we get hot? We're going to be fine."

The Blue Jays have been saying that about their offence for a while and now, they’re hoping the same applies to Gausman, too.